Estimate

8.000 - 10.000

Session 1

25 October 2023

Hammer Price

Description

Silver 950/000
Chiselled rococo style decoration of shell motifs, volutes and acanthus leaves resting on three shell and volutes feet
Engraved monogram MP surmounted by royal crown for Maria Pia of Savoy (1847-1911)
Crystal bowls
France assay warrantee mark (regd. 1879), goldsmith's mark Odiot (1825-1894), signed and numbered
Remarked Lisbon (1887-1937) and assay-mark for objects imported by private buyers
(minor signs of wear, one crystal bowl cracked)

15x24 cm (total) Height: 13 cm (só da prata)
1862 g

Category

Silver

Additional Information

Literature:
VIDAL, Manuel Gonçalves; ALMEIDA, Fernando Moitinho de - "Marcas de Contrastes e Ourives Portugueses (1887 a 1993)", vol. II. Lisboa: IN-CM, no. 67 and 244-A

A pair of fruit bowls from the last service made by Gustave Odiot (1865-1894) for Queen Maria Pia of Portugal

An avid buyer, in the 1890s Queen Maria Pia (1847-1911) commissioned a set of silver tableware from the renowned Paris silversmith Gustave Odiot (1865-1894). This commission would turn out to be the last consignment of silverware produced by Maison Odiot, then still under the master’s leadership, to be delivered to the Queen of Portugal. The pair of fruit bowls that Veritas Art Auctioneers is now presenting for sale, are two elements of that important commission. In 2019, the research essay by the Ajuda National Palace Museum gold and silver objects conservator Teresa Maranhas, “A prata de servir para Sintra” (The silver tableware for Sintra), published in “A Royal Lunch: A visita a Sintra da Rainha Alexandra do Reino Unido. 24 de março de 1905 (A royal Lunch: The Sintra visit of Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom. March 25th, 1905). Parques de Sinta - Monte da Lua. 2019”, presented new and relevant data on this set of French silverware, including the list of pieces that were selected to be used in the lunch organised in Sintra, to honour the British Queen. The Maranhas essay does also introduce the original Maison Odiot invoice, dated February 1894, revealing that 75,750.00 French Francs were spent in purchasing the silver set, which, in addition to fruit bowls, comprised of centrepieces, numerous serving utensils, tureens, and a variety of other typologies. Furthermore, the invoice details that the set was shipped over to Portugal packed in eleven red baize lined and varnished oak cases, identified with the Queen’s cypher. The pair of fruit bowls herein described were accommodated in case number 9, together with the remainder twenty-two that formed the set commissioned by Queen Maria Pia. Two of these fruit bowls were sold by Veritas in October 2018, another two were acquired by the Ajuda National Palace in 1999 from Dinastia Auctioneers, and a group of four, now at the Necessidades Palace, were acquired in 1953 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at an auction sale by Casa Liquidadora Leiria & Nascimento Lda. – former Bazar Católico, in Lisbon. The remaining sixteen fruit bowls, whose whereabouts are unknown, are most likely kept in unidentified private collections. Such dispersal can be explained by the abrupt end of the Portuguese monarchy, and by the loans that the last Portuguese monarch’s grandmother contracted with the wealthy banker Count of Burnay. In 1912, one year after Maria Pia’s death, and three years after Burnay’s own demise, most of the Queen’s personal jewellery and silverware collection, that had been offered as guarantee against consecutive contracted loans, was sold at an exceptional auction in the Bank of Portugal headquarters in Lisbon. The bilingual catalogue, printed in both Portuguese and French, described 365 jewellery lots and 8 silver lots that would mostly be “disputed with fervour by the connoisseurs” and a few whose “bidding was not very forthcoming”. Lot number 4, the one that particularly interests us, was described as “Vinte e quatro taças de crystal com pés de prata” (twenty-four crystal bowls with silver stands), hence identical to the two that we are now describing. In the abovementioned Maranhas essay is also referred that on July 17th, 1903, the Queen’s Lord Chamberlain was requested to hand over to the Bank, amongst other silver objects, the referred case number 9, containing the fruit bowls stands, valued at 4,008.000 reals. The evident connection between these two records, drives us to believe that the pair of fruit bowls with Veritas, were part of this group of twenty-four that were handed over to the Bank in 1903, which would eventually be disposed of some years later in the 1912 sale. However, as Burnay granted Queen Maria Pia the right to wear and use both the mortgaged jewellery and silverware, it is most certain that the fruit bowls in case number 9 were the same that served in the 1905 Sintra lunch. For further information on this event, see: “A Royal Lunch: A visita a Sintra da Rainha Alexandra do Reino Unido. 24 de março de 1905”, published by Parques de Sinta - Monte da Lua SA., 2019.

TIAGO FRANCO RODRIGUES